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My inspector files the report with the city. Do I still need my own copy?

Published · Compliance Binder

The short answer is yes, and the reason is that the filing and your record serve two different people. The filing tells the fire department that the work happened. Your record is what you produce when somebody standing in front of you asks for proof.

Who can actually see a filed report

Under a third party reporting programme the report goes from the contractor to the portal to the fire department. The parties who can see it are the contractor, the portal, and that fire department.

Consider who asks for these documents and is not on that list.

  • Your insurer, after a kitchen fire. Carriers ask for cleaning and service history when a claim is filed, and they are a private company with no access to a municipal compliance portal.
  • Your franchisor, at a brand audit. The franchise agreement usually specifies what you keep, and it is your obligation rather than the city's.
  • A health inspector, who works for a different department in a different building and generally cannot query fire department records.
  • A buyer's solicitor, during due diligence if you ever sell.
  • A different fire inspector, standing in your kitchen, who has asked you directly and is waiting.

NFPA 96 asks you to hold it, not the city

For kitchen exhaust systems specifically, NFPA 96 calls for a certificate showing the servicing company, the person who performed the work, and the date, maintained on the premises. A copy in a municipal database is not on your premises, and neither is one in a contractor's filing cabinet. See how long these records have to be kept.

The failure this produces

The programme creates a reasonable impression that record keeping is handled, because something official is clearly happening and letters arrive on schedule. The gap only becomes visible at the moment somebody asks you directly, which is usually the worst possible moment to discover it.

The fix costs one sentence

Ask every contractor who services a system to email you the report at the same time they file it. They already have it as a PDF, they are already sending it somewhere, and adding a second address takes no additional work. Most will simply add it to their template once and never think about it again.

This page describes what published standards say. It is not legal advice and it is not a determination about any premises. The requirements that apply to your building, including how often work must be done and what must be kept, are set by your authority having jurisdiction, which is usually your local fire marshal or health department. Where this page and your inspector disagree, your inspector is right.

Keeping this straight without thinking about it

Binder exists for exactly this gap. Each location gets its own email address, contractors send reports there, and the history assembles itself with dates attached. When an adjuster or a franchisor asks for two years of service records, you send a link.

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